Leafs 6, Flyers 0 – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Andreas Johnsson, five months removed from his MVP performance for the Calder Cup-winning Toronto Marlies, entered Saturday’s game versus Philadelphia with just two goals in 18 games played his season.

Johnsson dazzled the hometown crowd with a first period hat trick to help vault his team to a 6-0 win. All three of Johnsson’s goals came within a span of 7 minutes, 35 seconds.

Andreas Johnsson becomes the first @MapleLeafs player to record three goals in one period since Tyler Bozak accomplished the feat on December 21, 2015 at Colorado. #LeafsForever

Johnsson spoke of his accomplishment at game’s end. “After it kind of felt unreal. It’s hard to explain. I had the first goal, then the second goal and, all of a sudden, the third one, I’m like, ‘what’s going on?’,” he said.

Patrick Marleau, Josh Leivo and John Tavares had the other Leafs goals.

Defenceman Igor Ozhiganov registred an assist on the opening goal of the game, his first career NHL point.

Mitch Marner collected two assists to boost his season total to 24; four behind Mikko Rantanen for the league lead. His give-and-go with Leivo on the Leafs’ fifth goal was a thing of beauty.

Hockey fans of a certain vintage like myself grew up watching Dave Hodge as the host of Hockey Night In Canada. Hodge made an appearance during the pre-game broadcast as he and Ron MacLean and the rest of the HNIC staff sported the classic baby blue blazers, all of which will be auctioned off to support Hockey Fights Cancer.

The blazers are great. The cause is fantastic. It appears that an olive branch has been accepted, 31 years after Hodge’s ugly, acrimonious departure from Hockey Night, after the infamous pen flip in March of 1987:

About The Author

Rob is an avid Leafs fan, and Leafs media member working for Stan Fischler Hockey Services. He is also the author of Blue And White Beat, and is a part-owner and a regular columnist at TMLfans.ca.
Follow @Rob_DelMundo

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